Biography
Clélia Iruzun maintains a global performance schedule that regularly features fresh Brazilian compositions alongside core works from the Romantic era. Although she maintains her primary residence in Britain, several return visits to Brazil occur each year for concert engagements.
Rio de Janeiro was the city of her birth in 1963. Piano study began at age four through playing by ear, and three years later local instructors took over, guiding her into competitions that yielded early prizes. At nine she entered the University of Rio de Janeiro School of Music, where Arnaldo Cohen and Anna Carolina Pereira da Silva served as her teachers. Prominent Brazilian pianists such as Nelson Freire and several composers took notice, with the latter group dedicating works to her. A German DAAD scholarship was offered, yet she elected instead to relocate to London, continuing studies with Maria Curcio before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Music. There she trained in piano under Christopher Elton and in conducting under Colin Metters, completing her degree in 1988. That same year marked her Wigmore Hall debut in London. Additional instruction came from Noretta Conci and Merces de Silva Telles, while master classes with Stephen Kovacevich and Fou Ts'Ong further shaped her development and major international competition prizes accumulated.
Her programs balance Classical and Romantic repertoire with contemporary scores from Brazil and neighboring Latin American nations. World premieres stand among her achievements, encompassing pieces by Villa-Lobos, Henrique Oswald, and João Guilherme Ripper. Appearances have taken her throughout Europe, the Americas, and China, the last destination visited repeatedly, once in partnership with the Coull Quartet. Solo recitals, chamber music, and more than twenty-five concertos form the backbone of her activity. In 2011 she established the Brazil Three Centuries of Music series at London’s Southbank Centre to promote Brazilian repertoire in Britain.
Most of her recordings have appeared on the Intim Musik, Lorelt, Somm, and Meridian labels. The 2005 Lorelt album Lecuona: Ernesto and Ernestina presented music by the brother-and-sister composer pair. In 2020 Somm issued her recording that couples the piano concerto of Oswald with Camille Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 (“Egyptian”).
Rio de Janeiro was the city of her birth in 1963. Piano study began at age four through playing by ear, and three years later local instructors took over, guiding her into competitions that yielded early prizes. At nine she entered the University of Rio de Janeiro School of Music, where Arnaldo Cohen and Anna Carolina Pereira da Silva served as her teachers. Prominent Brazilian pianists such as Nelson Freire and several composers took notice, with the latter group dedicating works to her. A German DAAD scholarship was offered, yet she elected instead to relocate to London, continuing studies with Maria Curcio before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Music. There she trained in piano under Christopher Elton and in conducting under Colin Metters, completing her degree in 1988. That same year marked her Wigmore Hall debut in London. Additional instruction came from Noretta Conci and Merces de Silva Telles, while master classes with Stephen Kovacevich and Fou Ts'Ong further shaped her development and major international competition prizes accumulated.
Her programs balance Classical and Romantic repertoire with contemporary scores from Brazil and neighboring Latin American nations. World premieres stand among her achievements, encompassing pieces by Villa-Lobos, Henrique Oswald, and João Guilherme Ripper. Appearances have taken her throughout Europe, the Americas, and China, the last destination visited repeatedly, once in partnership with the Coull Quartet. Solo recitals, chamber music, and more than twenty-five concertos form the backbone of her activity. In 2011 she established the Brazil Three Centuries of Music series at London’s Southbank Centre to promote Brazilian repertoire in Britain.
Most of her recordings have appeared on the Intim Musik, Lorelt, Somm, and Meridian labels. The 2005 Lorelt album Lecuona: Ernesto and Ernestina presented music by the brother-and-sister composer pair. In 2020 Somm issued her recording that couples the piano concerto of Oswald with Camille Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 (“Egyptian”).
Albums
Fernández: Piano Works
2025
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58
2024
Treasures from the New World, Vol. 2
2021
Oswald, Saint-Saëns & Nepomuceno: Piano Works
2020
Treasures from the New World
2020
Mignone & Albéniz: Piano Concertos
2017
Mompou: Selected Works, Vol. 2
2016
Mompou: Selected Works, Vol 1
2012
Latin American Dances
2010
Villa-Lobos: Piano Music
2005
The Waltz Album
2001
Singles
